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by GreyKira
Summary: Everyone wore a mask. His didn't came off, until the Hyuuga had call for him. A truth revealed. But what did the curiosity of the teen really meant? Because curiosity wasn't just the reason for Neji to act like a fool and call an enemy. ItaNeji.
1. Chapter 1

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Masks. Every single individual crossing his path wore one. Always hiding their true intentions, facades painted in their faces. But, reality crushed their masks. Made the humans to fall in defeat, realism playing out in their comprehension in the meaning of the true nature of life.

All masks broke.

Observation had help him. Many times had he realized he was the execption. He wore his mask like a illusionist, fooling even the best reader of lies. He had developed lies into true. Had twisted fate into his own accord. But he well knew the cost of keeping his mask in place.

His emotions and humanity had been partly taken as the price. His words had carried repent against his soul, always provoking him a sense of understanding. He had accepted this the day he swore to his village. Had accepted his mask without a second thought. For the safety of his brother.

Then he learned that reality held neutral ground even with the best liar. The Hyuuga had been the on in charge of breaking his mask, yet the young shinobi of Konoha still couldn't make Itachi's mask to collapse agaisnt the floor. The Uchiha's mask not even affected after the Hyuuga spoke one of the greatest truth Itachi had hidden under his mask.

"They order you to kill your clan. They order you to infiltrate in Akatsuki." There was a pause. Then his lips opened again. "Yet, you never used this in advantage to declare innocence of your crimes."

"Where did you found that information?"

The moon eyes explored him. Itachi never breaking emotion into his expressions, just the rigid mask that declined any information to Itachi's observer.

"I was just curious at first..." The Hyuuga spoke as he observed the paper that held information that gave Neji conveinent superiority over Itachi at the moment."Curious of your reasons...Then the curiosity started to turn into a constant importance to me. It prolonged, and my curiosity fell to the point of obsession. I investigated for days, but couldn't find something satysfing. I risked my position when I infiltrated in places where Konoha held vital data...Then one day I entered the Hokage's office, knowing that even some secrets are just meant to be hidden...And finally found something..."

After finishing he directed his attention to the Uchiha's eyes. Obsidian eyes stared back with a cold indifference.

"What is the truth, Uchiha?" The mask didn't break, Itachi neglecting the effect of the words. "What were your reason to accept the mission?"

"Don't convey judgement under me...You hold a paper with not meaning." His Sharingan activated, Neji'a stance changed into defense. "You're a fool for calling me here..."

Exacerbating the situation Neji refused to activate his own Kekkei Genkai.

"Genjutsu is useless agaisnt the Byakugan. But, my eyes held superior power." Itachi have a step forward, the Hyuuga didn't moved a muscle. "Your mistake..."

"Was it because of Sasuke..."

A pause. A crack in his mask. Shock.

He recuperated his facade in a second. Coldness and emotionless eyes pierced trough the younger teen. The pale eyes diverting his emotion into a turbulent clash of confusion. Yet, his mask held tight into his face.

"I won't listen to this anymore..."

He stood directly in front of Neji. Sharingan and Byakugan facing each other in a silent battle.

"Curiosity kills, Hyuuga."

Neji stood rigid. Itachi moved his hand at the back of the Hyuuga's head in a slow motion, Neji still didn't made a move to defend himself from a possible attack. His white eyes simply staring at the Sharingan user. Exploring for any traces of a scar in the mask of lies that Itachi wore.

Ignorant to the effect of those eyes, Itachi proceeded to undone the Hitai ate from Konoha. The metalic object fell in the ground, as if Neji left him take off the Hyuuga's own mask. Not even a hint of repent.

"What do you hide, Uchiha?"

"I hide nothing...unlike you..."

With a last move the bandages covering the front of Neji's head fell to the floor. The cursed seal revealed to the Uchiha.

"Seems I was right then..." Itachi's feet move a step away from Neji, the Uchiha's finger touching with the tip of fingers Neji's seal. "You're from the lower branch. Yet you risk everything for nothing here with me...For mere curiosity of my history..."

"Why did you-?"

A gasp escaped his lips when Itachi gripped his throath.

"Calling the wolf to the prey'a house has a cost. An enemy will always be an enemy, Hyuuga..." Itachi left Neji fall, the cry of ravens delivered the announcement of departure. "Arrive here, tonight. This discussion isn't over..."

He disappeared. Neji blinked observed the afternoon sky.

"I'll wait here until you come back..."

It wasn't curiosity at all...it was more for searching something that Itachi held the answer to.

His opal eyes observed the metallic object in the floor. He gave a kick, his mask was off.

"Time for yours to come off,Uchiha..."

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><p><strong>Thanks For reading . English is not my first language...I don't really know where I'm going with this story. Hopefully I'll think<strong> **of something.**


	2. Chapter 2

-Chapter Two-

A Consumer: Eat and destroy was the function of his disease.

A validated virus dedicated to its labor of eliminating his health. A self-introduced disease that had already parted its way to consume the healthy cells of his system. He was used to the merciless pain brought upon him.

A sacrifice for the better.

He had expected things to turn out like he desired to think of: A better future for his young brother.

For years he plaged his mind with the goal of mantainig his mask...Until the end.

Reality had broken his plans.

Laments of a human had not importance to the world. Aware of this, Itachi had never denied the opportunity of hope to vanish. Yet, he had to admit the real position he held didn't favor anything at the moment. Because someone had already killed any chance of the continuation of his plan.

Destroying any chance of him from keeping his mask in place. From saving his brother.

Just by the simple fact that the Hyuuga knew everything.

Eliminating the constant thoughts he concentrated his mind into his feet. Moving fast to his destination. To end this and continue his chosen path...

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><p>"You arrived."<p>

"It seems that I have to repeat my words to you..." He closed his eyes, his iris glowing crimson like those of a spectral creature of the night. Lips slowly pronouncing his words to the young Hyuuga. A calmness in the expression drawn upon the shinobi of Konoha as he heard the familiar words. "Your curiosity can kill you. That of course depends in my decision..."

"I know."

The Hyuuga didn't covered his seal. As if to demonstrate that facades weren't needed at this point. Itachi, however, didn't desire to drop his mask so easily.

"Destroy the scroll, if you truly desire to keep your village and yourself safe."

Owls lamented in the night. Once again facing each other with their eyes, forcing one another to see who dared to break the silence.

"You still refuse to respond to me, Uchiha..." No hesitations, he had planned to be honest from the begging. "Why sacrifice your own virtue? Your name? Your freedom? Here I held your liberty and you refuse to take a change and clean everything...Why don't you-"

"Enough."

The negation, and the way he refused to take that scroll that had sufficient power to liberate this criminal of his charges. It infuriated Neji to no end.

"Take it! Do you have any idea what would I do for something like this?"

"I'm not you, Hyuuga..."

"To have an opportunity-"

"I know my chains..."

"To be able to break the chain of my own cage, and hold my own liberty!"

The confession escaped his mouth. Itachi's eyes observant to the fury placed in Neji's expression.

"It must be suffocating you..." Itachi's words emanated like acid under his skin. "To be this broken..."

The words evoked anger. His own reality spat on his face by a coward covering his own denial with a facade. As if he was not different from him. In matter of seconds Neji questioned himself for his acts. To offer some kind of chance for this traitor. As if he deserve it.

So much refusal from that insolent.

He wished not liberty from his lies? That didn't matter to him. If he wanted to blaspheme Neji's name. Then he glady would return the favor.

"You don't want liberty,huh?" Without remorse the paper he held dropped to the floor. "Fine with me. You still a traitor under Konoha's ground."

Not response. Same rigid and unaffected charade that the Uchiha played so well. As if he knew every step to hold his control. His lies.

"Insults are meaningless. But, condemning yourself face to face with me is the move of a fool that doesn't know the rules of the game..." He leaned close to Neji. His lips whispering close to the Hyuuga's ear. "We share the same misery. But, I have not interest to fight against it... Because, death it's the only path I'll known since I left that village... Is what the cursed crave, and believe me. I crave my death more than you can imagine..."

Those black fingernails pressed against the back of his neck. Cold contact, as if the Reaper had caressed his skin to pronounce its presence.

"Death is the liberation of the cursed..."

When the Uchih pressed their heads together he was sure he was tasting death. It was suffocating, but addictive at the same time.

"Fighting it...It's impossible..."

A harsh pressure against his lips and he responded with the same force against those lips. Desiring to fight and demonstrate that he could prove him wrong. But, the taste of that mouth was enough to make him lose balance. Falling in his knees like a fallen warrior, observing with his eyes those dark orbs.

"Fighting your death is impossible..."

He whispered in the air. Itachi's hands caressing his cursed symbol.

The cry of ravens broke his attention from the Uchiha. His body dissolving into many of those dark birds, flying...Neji reached for Itachi's hand. But it was one in an instant...

The departure broke him even more.

He left the Uchiha go without breaking that mask he wore. Sometimes wearing lies in a facade could do more than suffocate. It killed in so many ways.

"No...I can't..." Why did he feel the need to chase after that bastard? Why was he acting like a idiot going against directions? "What the hell have done to myself?"

No answer came from the forest. Just the cries of the many animals around him. His mask broken by a man so similar to him, but too far away from the same ideals.

He rose with trembling knees. That kiss replaying in his mind, capturing the senses it evoked. But, he continued a different path from that of the Uchiha.

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><p><strong>I's sorry for spelling and gra<strong>**mmar mistakes.**

**Thank you for reading. I'll write chapter three whenever I can.**


	3. Chapter 3

-Chapter Three-

A pile of misery constructed of a massacre and sacrifice. A vile memory that transferred so many fresh wounds, bleeding inside out. The ghosts of those he once murdered reminding him trough nightmares the cost he had to pay in order to satisfy their laments. Becoming the victim of those miserables demons. Never tasting peace, always resting with the companionship of guilt.

The only manner he could survive was through denial. Through wearing a invisible mask that held every single truth. Trough living a lie.

His only objective was to endure until the day he would finally receive what he craved- Until the final battle where he would be offered his own death by the hands of his own brother.- He imagined this as his forgiveness for all his charges. Like a medicine with the taste of suicide.

How much he desired for the misery to vanish. To levitate the heavy charge he had over his shoulders. Making him crave for that most humans feared, but in his eyes it was the only cure for the curse of guilt.

The simple thought of suicide consumed him into a sick happiness. Because, he was aware that he craved his death more than anything.

_"You can't imagine how much I crave my own death..."_

His own words that he had pronounced to the Hyuuga echoed through his head. The encounter with the Hyuuga replaying in his head once again. It brought his attention to the share of words and insults that he had received from the Hyuuga, classifying him as a coward. He had to admit that somehow the word of the young ninja had produced some type of sensation of apathy towards Neji.

He could use that as the excuse of the actions he had committed with Neji Hyuuga.

"To think..." He savoured the wound in the bottom of his lips, provoked by the fierce teeth of the Hyuuga when both of them clashed against each other in a salvage kiss."I confessed my desire for death to a stranger..."

He blinked. A cold liquid connecting to his skin. He observed the grey sky. Before he knew it, the torment had already captured him in the middle of the chaos. His body wet. He didn't felt the need to complain. After all, sometimes the cry of the sky felt as his own. It echoed through every place, but it went unnoticed to the people.

"When will I fade?"

The ferocious rain responded with the sound of lighting.

"I think the only weapon I know is surrender..." He was conversating with the solitude of nature. Murmuring his desolated questions, his body rigid in the middle of a torment. "My resistance is only the mask I wear...I think that is as suffocating as the mark of that cursed Hyuuga. I think that I am really becoming insane..."

He marched through the rain. Accepting the comfort that the rain offered as he walked. It was like the falling tears he would never reveal to no one.

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><p>His desolated window was painted with the dust of time , his fingers caressing the glass. He kissed his fingers, tasting the dust. The flavour of the dead.<p>

"_Death is the liberation of the cursed..."_

His body had collapsed in the floor. The Uchiha's words replaying like the chanting of ghosts who pleaded for his attention. Crawling under his skin. Suffocating him with the thoughts of misery.

He sat close to the window, the torment outside roaring. like a desperate calling for help, but Neji was sure that if he responded to such calling he would probably would become lost or destroyed. He had to admit that he wasn't a coward, but when it came to fight for something like the chains holding his liberty. There was always a limitation.

"I can't fight my death? He is right about that...About everything..."

He reached with his fingers the cursed-seal.

"I will always wear this..." Laughter escaped his lips, "But, he will always wear a mask of lies."

It all sounded like a cruel joke. A prodigy designated to become a forgotten member of the Low Branch. His role wasn't one of a hero who would solve everything by merely putting all his effort. The reality always chained him back to his miserable cage. Never able to break free.

So much effort for nothing...

Like what he had done for Uchiha Itachi.

"What was I thinking?" he shook his head. Ashamed of his offering to the Uchiha, thinking that the criminal was a innocent as statated in that paper. "To offer him an opportunity...Just to end with refusal as the asnwer..."

He forced himself to move. To move away from the window. He crossed his legs and in a patient breath he liberated his frustration. He reached for peace as he closed his eyes.

Hadn't he reached for the Uchiha, too?

_"You can't fight your death..."_

He was bound to misery, to the simple tactic of constructing his own walls of denial. Neglecting to hear those echoes in his mind, those words that seemed to be whispered by the angel of death. Uchiha himself resembling that image in what the young Hyuuga considered. Because every time that voice whispered that same phrase, it felt like his wings were being broken. Like Itachi tearing his wings out from his skin.

It felt like liberation...

A cruel liberty where he rested with closed eyes...

_"You can't_ _imagine how much I crave my own death..."_

He breathed the essence of a putrid smell. His lungs craving for pure air, but as he continued to listen those echoes his breathing faded into nothing. Suffocating him.

He gasped.

His lungs filled with air once again.

He had stopped his own breathing. Those whispers provoking him to obey, to reach and give inn to the cold grasp of death.

"No...This is not the liberty I desire..." He shook his head, anger plastered in his expression."Not that way...Not without a fight..."

He couldn't risk. Didn't want to set fire to his little hope he had gained trough his hard work. To grasp defeat for the need of peace, it would mean that his existence had not value. Just a forgotten silhouette.

He wouldn't become the victim of sadness. Caught in the eternal fire where they were always reminded of their suffering. A failure.

he distracted his heart away from the misery, shut down emotions that screamed for him. He didn't need to trouble his soul. He would find a way to escape his curse.

"Just...stop thinking..."

Just as he proclaimed, he ignored it. His bitter heart settling into memories that caught him into the sensation of peace. Memories of a ignorant child holding the hand of his protector. Always saving him from the obscure monsters that tried to catch him. But, in reality...His protector was a failure, the monsters had already claimed victory by implanting a curse, decorating his skin with a mark.

But, it didn't matter when fantasy extracted that reality. He could pretend and keep moving on...

His path wasn't constructed of lies, but the bitter desire to elimate his curse always blocked his path. Just like the voice he heard trough his head, his memories changing into his present once more. That voice bringing again to the melody of suicide.

"I can't do it like this..." He observed the window once more, clouds still grey. The rain disolving into nothingness. "In quiet spaces his voice would just come to me. Probably, if I distract my mind with the presence of others...A walk through the village may help me to calm my head..."

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><p>He walked through the night.<p>

Bright lanterns and decorations saludated him as he continued his path trough the central streets of Konohagakure. Voices emanating trough every direction, loud and distracting as he heard the continuous chatter of people. Just the diversion he had been looking for.

"Finally..."

He continued his path through the many restaurant, delighted to distract his min. With the many things that appeared before him. Keeping him thinking in things without importance. But, needed at the time.

He couldnt encounter familiar faces, just strangers walking by.

The only person with some familiarity he had seen was Naruto who sat eating Ramen. Laughther escaping from his mouth, vulgar jokes, drinks. A festive night for the young man. Neji had saludated, Naruto had responded with a grin. They didn't share many words, but their talk was enoug to calm Neji.

The echoes of death vanished.

So he had taken his decision to go back to his room. To rest and continue like it was supposed to be.

He passed a merchant. The old man registered Neji as a client that would be a lot of gain. So the merchant had simply decided to take hold of Neji's hand, forcing him to face many porcelain figures. Neji opened his mouth to reject the offer.

"No, Thank you-"

The contact of cold fingers carresing his neck stopped him. Making hI'm a statute as he turned around to see a figure covered in a black cloak reaching for him with a pale hand, almost capturing Neji. But thanks to the old man the only thing that figure had reached was a mere contact.

The voice of the stranger resonating like the call of a hunter. Like a intense echo coming from a waking monster. Suave and lethal.

The deathly call of a lover.

"Hyuuga-"

The only thing he could observe from the dark figure was the bright-crimson eyes.

The figure ran away. Neji hesitated, his feet chased after the figure...

"Young man, wait!"

He ignored the call of the old man. His eyes glued to the figure, waiting for him to dissolve in many raven and escape from Neji once more. But, Itachi continued to run.

"_Why is he here? Why did he come to me? Does he want the scroll?"_

He chased and chased, the figure continued to escape from his grasp.

_"Why are you here!?"_

He didn't care the path Itachi choose to take he was determinated to follow. His legs ordering him to continue. His eyes tracking every move the Uchiha made as he ran. Fast and precise.

His hands reached for the man. His fingers barely touching the cloak. So close and yet so far. Like death.

"Death is the liberation of the cursed..."

He desired to hear more. To listen to his responses, even if his words made Neji's mind wild and insane. The countless time he had heard that voice echo had waken his impulses. Like a desperate child who had tasted sweets for the firat time, and even if it caused danger to the health. He somehow knew he craved it.

Neji jumped. Attacked in a desperate intent to capture the Uchiha.

And he had grasped the cloak.

"_Yes!"_

He pulled the cloak with fierce strength. The unexpected attack made the figure gasp in shock. The figure fell backwards, Neji never leaving his hold as both bodies fell and rolled in the ground. Not even as rocks hit his body.

"W-Why!?"

The Uchiha was in his knees, both hands and cloak covering his face. Neji's hand taking hold of his shoulder. His other hand moved to reveal the face.

"Why did you come back?!Tell me you-"

The Uchiha grasped his neck. The Uchiha facing him with the eyes who danced with the flames of the Sharingan.

As he saw the young face and the sharp ends of hair touching his skin he couldn't do nothing more than murmur in confusion the name that escaped his lips.

"Sasuke..."

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading. <strong>

**I'll try to fix grammar or spelling errors later.**


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